Re: fsutil ideas

On Thu, Feb 23, 2006 at 11:32:05PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Neil Conway <neilc@samurai.com> writes:
> > Do we actually need this functionality inside the 
> > DBMS in the first place?
> 
> I think that is the $64 question.  My immediate instinct is "no".
> See the knock-down-drag-out fights we had last summer about whether
> to expose any filesystem access in built-in standard functions at all.
> There will be what the Supreme Court would call "strict scrutiny"
> concerning the need for this, possible security risks, etc.

Isn't this something that could be accomplished entirely within a
function? I suppose it might have to be an untrusted language, but that
still seems cleaner than putting it in the backend. Plus, ISTM that
something like perl is more likely to have a cross-platform means of
accomplishing this.
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461